Saturday, May 22, 2010

Reflections mid-weekend

Earlier in the week I was watching a program about a nature-enthusiast family and their tracking of the wild world on their doorstep. I usually don't really get along with documentary type shows, but I tried to persevere with this one since Blake was still awake and I was seeking a Mickey Mouse Clubhouse/Chuggington alternative. At any rate, I did enjoy it, despite being at times slightly annoyed by how idyllic it all seemed (I wasn't alone in that thought). The segment that struck me the most was the part about a mother duck who was venturing out with her ducklings - 10 of them! - and trying to keep them safe. At one point they headed off down the river and everyone went over this pretty large waterfall apart from one little duckling who seemed too scared of the height. It seemed uncertain about whether to go over the edge and the camera cut to the mother who seemed to be encouraging the duckling from afar. Finally he did join up with the family and the mother succeeded at keeping her entire set of ducklings safe and within her reach. I was thinking about my worries of how to handle 2 (one of whom isn't even mobile!) and how hard it must be to keep 10 little ones within reach, but as I commented about this to Matt, he made the observation that for the most part, the little ducks actually followed their mother - unlike Blake who seems dead set on just heading in the opposite direction to me! It just reminded me of how natural the mother's protective instinct is.

On Friday Noah and I spent some time "playing" on his blanket. This meant him flailing all around, punching the air, kicking his little legs, and emitting these sweet gurgles and coos. I thought to myself that I would love to keep him at this age forever, but then realized how a) that's not possible and b) that's not really what I want - I of course want to see him start to become his own person, master new skills and experience more of the world than from his back in his moses basket, pram, or in our arms. Even though it is soooo wonderful to have him just look at me with his sweet eyes that seem to say, "Hey Mom, this is nice. Life is good."

We had some nice sunshine today so we went to the park, debuting the double buggy which seemed to work pretty well for all involved. Blake has really fallen in love with ice cream, or at least has fallen in love with the idea of asking for an ice cream and generally doing so on a day where his request is honored. My friend Bianca let me in on a good "white lie" if I need, which is the one about when the ice cream van plays music, that means he's all out of ice cream. I can see that one coming in handy!!Although today we couldn't locate an ice cream van, we stopped at Tesco and got him a Malteasers ice cream. He hasn't quite understood the concept that unless eaten fairly quickly, by nature the cream will cease to become frozen, so he set about giving it a few dainty licks before a lot of it ended up all over the straps of the buggy (so whether we love the double buggy or not, we're keeping it!).

Here are a few pics, of tummy time, being a "dude", and a depiction of how Blake expresses his love (yes, it does look like wrestling and yes, we are doing our best to make sure he's being gentle!).

Here is Noah practicing to be a bouncer at a country/western honky tonk bar. And he does have a neck! Just not in this photo...Do his eyes say "Help!"?